Little Richard changed pop culture forever – but he was a tortured soul

Little Richard coined a phrase and launched a genre when he roared “A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-wop-bam-boom!" into a microphone in 1955. He once claimed to have been imitating the sound of a drum solo, but whether he understood it or not, he was giving voice to a powerful feeling of post-war social change. Tutti Frutti may not be the first ever rock ’n’ roll record but it is right there on the cusp, a piece of music so wild and free it fired a rocket through pop culture. We can still feel the reverberations 65 years later.

Richard Penniman has died, aged 87, after a long and eventful life. But somehow it is hard to imagine that his showbiz alter ego, Little Richard, will ever be silenced. With his pompadour hairstyle, pencil moustache, pancake make-up and colourful suits, the flamboyant, piano-playing rocker with a throat-blistering roar set a joyous, gender-bending archetype for a new generation. If his white contemporary Elvis Presley would go on to be acclaimed the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, Little Richard was surely it’s screaming queen.

In an incredible 14-month period from October 1955 to January 1958, Little Richard notched up a succession of world changing hits with Tutti Frutti, Long Tall Sally, Slippin’ and Slidin’, Rip It Up, Ready Teddy, Lucille and Good Golly, Miss Molly. When Little Richard stood at his piano to play the title song of The Girl Can’t Help It in 1956, teenage Teddy Boy fans (including a young John Lennon) rioted in the cinema aisles and tore out the seats. His 1957 debut album, Here’s Little Richard, is surely one of the greatest dance albums ever made. Even the front cover was a classic, with its bright yellow and orange sleeve framing a black and white photograph of the star singing with the eyes-shut, open-mouthed abandon that became his trademark, sweat pouring down his face. Little Richard is an icon of liberation through music. The absolute exuberance and electrifying spirit in his recordings is impossible to deny.

Little Richard’s hit-making period was relatively short, as he effectively self-sabotaged his own career. He was tortured by doubts about his sexuality and his relationship with God, fears that drove him to drugs and alcohol, and that frequently saw him giving up “secular” music to record and perform devotional gospel songs. He never had a top 10 hit after 1958. But his influence was enormous, justifying his place as one of the all time greats of rock history.

In the early years, a veritable who’s who of rock legends recorded Little Richard songs, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. The Beatles studied his songs carefully, performing many Little Richard covers in their early sets, with both Lennon and Paul McCartney imitating his vocal style on their most raw and exciting rockers. No doubt they were encouraged by Little Richard himself, who befriended the Beatles when they supported him on tour in 1963.

He always claimed to have taught McCartney how to shriek those famous “Whooos” that would later end up on She Loves You. “Paul idolised me,” Little Richard frequently asserted. He wasn’t wrong. “It was one of those voices you couldn’t believe,” according to McCartney. “The first wild high voice I ever heard was Little Richard. It was such an influence on me.” Keyboard player Billy Preston was a member of Little Richard’s band and would later go on to play with The Beatles during the Let It Be sessions. But his most famous alumni was a certain talented young guitarist by the name of Jimi Hendrix, who allegedly quit the Little Richard band because the singer was upset with having his limelight stolen.

Force of nature: Little Richard in 1966
Credit: AP

Elton John was another huge fan. “I heard Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis and that was it,” he once revealed. “I didn’t ever want to be anything else.” In 1993, they recorded a song together, The Power, with Little Richard whooping it up with gospel exuberance. Jon Bon Jovi and Solomon Burke also recorded duets with Little Richard, whilst The Kinks, The Animals, The Zombies, Deep Purple, Eric Clapton, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Band, T-Rex, Queen, Motorhead, Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen recorded his songs. Prince was quite clearly another admirer, adopting many of Little Richard’s onstage mannerisms and fashion stylings. “Prince is the Little Richard of his generation,” according Little Richard himself, who was rarely shy of blowing his own trumpet.

The truth is nobody had looked or sounded like Little Richard before he came along. He was raised singing gospel and incorporated the shrieks and ululations of religious ecstasy to a souped-up Rhythm & Blues style, adapting the New Orleans Boogie Woogie piano stride of Fats Domino. The songs he wrote and recorded in that first burst of fame were raunchy and rude, drawing on his own sexual voraciousness and confusion. He once described himself as “omnisexual,” and in his early pre-rocking years sometimes performed in drag as Princess LaVonne. Yet he was torn too by his religious upbringing, and frequently denounced homosexuality as a sin. It is perhaps no surprise that he did not have a particularly stable career. He was black, he was camp, and he was in many ways a tortured soul. But the way all of that complicated emotion was released into his music was a revelation for which we should all be thankful. There is only one way you can sum it up. “A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-wop- bam-boom!" Says it all, really.